Author: Lance Garrison
Over 50 years ago, my wife, Malinda, and I bought a chef’s knife of carbon steel that we still use. It could be passed down to several generations. Compare that to the junk stainless steel ones that might not rust but that won’t hold an edge to cut a tomato.Cheap products, made poorly and thrown away quickly, are killing people and the planet.Since 1999, humans have far surpassed — by billions of metric tons — the amount of Earth’s resources that scientists estimate we can sustainably use. The culprit: our overconsumption of stuff, from shoddy tools to fast fashion that…
In The Times, Dwight Garner noted how little a certain conservative cable network has been affected by the revelations of its bald fictions and blatant exaggerations: “Fox News, at this point, resembles a car whose windshield is thickly encrusted with traffic citations. Yet this car (surely a Hummer) manages to barrel out anew each day, plowing over six more mailboxes, five more crossing guards, four elderly scientists, three communal enterprises, two trans kids and a solar panel.” (Thanks to Steven R. Strahler of Oak Park, Ill., and Barbara Walker of Rapid City, S. D., among many others, for nominating this…
These are cruel and challenging times. How did previous generations hold on to their sanity — and humanity — in the face of violence and instability?In this audio essay, the columnist David Brooks seeks answers in the intellectual and moral traditions of ancient Athens and Jerusalem. The key to thriving, he argues, is to embody behaviors that might at first seem contradictory.(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.)The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of…
By Margret Krakauer, as told to Keri Wiginton I’ve recently switched hobbies from painting to writing. One of the first things I wrote for my memoir was: It’s a race between losing my vision and my hearing.I’m 79 and had cataract surgery a decade ago. That’s when my doctor diagnosed me with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I started to show signs of geographic atrophy (GA) probably 5 years later.I’ve been legally blind in my left eye since childhood, which has nothing to do with GA. But I learned to adapt to vision loss early on. I always wonder if my early…
By Linda Chernek Moore, as told to Keri WigintonWhether you live with someone or not, the role of caregiver can be all-consuming. But like they say before takeoff: Put your oxygen mask on first. In other words, you can’t care for others if you don’t care for yourself.I also caution people about being helicopter caregivers. Instead, if your loved one has vision loss, help them find solutions to be as independent as they want. I wish I’d known more about how to help my father after he was diagnosed with geographic atrophy (GA). That led me to start Our Macular Degeneration…
By Kristen Shifflett, OT, as told to Keri Wiginton“Will I go completely blind from this?” That’s the question everyone with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) always asks. And they melt upon themselves with calmness when I say, no, you’ll just need to do some things differently.If you have geographic atrophy (GA), an advanced form of dry AMD, you may lose some or all of your central vision. That’s the part of your eye you use to look directly at things, like people’s faces or the words in this sentence.Your medical team may give you shots or other interventions to keep your eyesight…
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.thomas friedmanI’m Thomas Friedman, and I’m the Foreign Affairs columnist of The New York Times. And I’ve been here since 1981.[MUSIC PLAYING]I’ve just spent nine days in Israel and traveling through part of the West Bank, just to try to understand what’s been the political and strategic impact of Hamas’s onslaught on Israeli settlements on October 7. On the last night I was there, I…
By Diane Marshall, as told to Keri WigintonThe choice to get treatment for the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a no-brainer. You have to get shots to save your vision. Fast intervention may even improve your eyesight.And for those of us with geographic atrophy (GA), an advanced form of dry AMD, there’s hope for the future now that the first-ever treatment was approved. The pros and cons aren’t so clear-cut, but after talking to my retina specialist and people in my AMD community, I decided to go for it. I got my first eye injection earlier this summer.…
It is hard to describe what it means for someone to be “severely wasted,” but when you hold a child who is suffering from this most lethal form of acute malnutrition, you understand, and you never forget. In Afghanistan last year, I met a 3-month-old girl named Wahida who was so malnourished I could barely feel the weight of her in my arms. Her suffering has left an indelible mark on my heart.Now the suffering in Gaza is leaving a similar mark on me. Last week, I visited the al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Inside, I was…
By Joan Kathryn, as told to Keri Wiginton I’m 79 now, and my doctor diagnosed me with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2008. Over the past 15 years, I’ve developed wet AMD in my left eye and geographic atrophy (GA) in both eyes. I don’t like to call attention to myself, and people often don’t realize I have vision issues. But I have blank spots that make it harder to recognize faraway faces, read fine print, or find small objects. GA causes vision loss slowly, and I’ve learned to adapt over the years. But don’t get me wrong, AMD can be aggravating. For…